I open another shop on etsy - EndlessLoveVintage!

Hi everyone! It's been quite some time since I've blogged. I was busily preparing for another new shop on etsy. The same idea of recycling, but this time it's vintage - I've rediscovered the beauty of some stashed away jewelry and striving to find them new, loving owners! The shop is expanding quickly with the addition of fashion accessories and other what-nots.
Maybe there's something you like here?!
Scroll down to see more items in both of my shops!

English Seaglass Jewelry

English seaglass is the ultimate prize for seaglass lovers! The combination of two or more colors on a single perfectly rounded and frosted piece is unlike seaglass from anywhere else! The century old history brings nostalgia and awe - these were leftovers thrown into the sea right from onshore glass factories!
The Northeast coast of England is the 'Mecca' for seaglass lovers, I believe. But second best to personally collecting the prized gems is to buy them from reputable seaglass sellers. I have selected some special pieces and made them into unique jewelry. Keep it close to your heart and wonder about the story behind each piece!

The Background Counts!

A couple of days ago, there was a question posted on etsy forum about how to capture the colors of theme objects accurately on photo. There were suggestions of types of light source (natural light works best), brand of cameras (quality isn't really proportional to price), camera settings, computer monitor settings... That set me off thinking about my experience with seaglass photography. I believe the choice of background colors is very important too.

Our eyes work differently from a camera - a piece of seaglass on a white background may look the same to us in natural or artificial light, but not so for the camera.

For example, I find it very difficult to capture the blue-green colors of teal and turquoise seaglass if I used a white background. This is because of the subtle fluorescence in bleached white paper or fabric. The camera picks this up as a diffuse blue tone, resulting in the turquoise / teal being comparatively greener than they really are.

I've overcome this by using a beige background or one with a yellow undertone, or white material that has no fluorescence - eg. ceramic.

These are the same batch of turquoise seaglass, taken under the same lighting condition (diffuse sunlight) with the same camera and same camera settings. The only difference is the background: white paper and beige paper for the first and second photo respectively.

White is another problem I had. The exposure is never quite right when shooting white seaglass on a white background. White on black background is sometimes too contrasty either. Then I've found that a pale shade of grey or goldtone works wonders!

I still do not have a working principle for matching background colors with subject colors, but the there's always nice surprises in the process of finding out!

Diffuse sunlight gives us the most balanced color spectrum to work with. But I just love the way the setting sun lights up my seaglass!

Well, most of the time, I just use different backgrounds for interesting results!

Seaglass Clusters

Seaglass tinies, in many different colors...so pretty like little flowers! Inspired by the flower hydrangea, I have made balls of seaglass with different colors. All shades of blue like the sea on a calm sunny day...light blue and green in colors of the seafoam waves...teal, honey and amber in colors of the temperate forest in autumn...in any color combination I could think of!

I am collecting even small seaglass to make some cluster earrings and rings too!